Midland Red Bus and Coach Books - History

Midland Red Style

The first book in a series looking at design in all its aspects in some of Britain's best loved bus companies. The reader is able to follow the visual developments in vehicle, infrastructure and printed publicity design up to the point the Midland Red company was taken over by the National Bus Company.

Midland Red in Colour

The story of Midland Red is well known in enthusiast circles, and those lucky enough to have experienced the company at its peak can well remember the fleet of nearly 2,000 bright red vehicles not only cheering up the industrial areas of the Black Country and the East Midlands but blending seamlessly with the bucolic charms of the Vale of Evesham, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire.

Regrettably, most images captured when the company was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s were in monochrome and showed us nothing of the brightness that these buses brought to our lives.
"Midland Red in Colour" seeks to address this imbalance and bring forward an album of images in full colour to remind us of what we once had in our everyday lives. Delving into his own archives, as well as those of his contemporaries, author Bernard Warr offers a wonderfully nostalgic look back at this iconic company.

Midland Red Single-Deckers

Throughout their existence from 1904 until 1981, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Co. was an idiosyncratic operator whose operational area covered an area from the Welsh Marches and Shropshire in the west to Northamptonshire and Rutland in the east and from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire in the south to Staffordshire and Derbyshire in the north.

Immediately after the First World War, Midland Red had used single-decker buses on Tilling-Stevens petrol-electric chassis but in 1922 these were replaced by the first SOS buses, designed by Chief Engineer Wyndham Shire and manufactured at Midland Red's Carlyle Road Works.
These innovative and forward-thinking buses would out-compete many Edwardian tram systems in the 1920s, especially in the Black Country.

After the Second World War, Midland Red introduced the S class, which would play a key role in revolutionising the company's urban and rural bus services. The last buses to be produced for Midland Red at Carlyle Road would come in the early 1960s.

With a plethora of rare images, David Harvey examines the history of each type of single-decker and offers a fascinating insight into the history of these captivating, iconic buses.

Midland Red Double-Deckers

Throughout their existence from 1904 until 1981, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Co. was an idiosyncratic operator whose operational area ranged from the Welsh Marches and Shropshire in the west to Northamptonshire and Rutland in the east; and from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire in the south to Staffordshire and Derbyshire in the north.
Much of their area was distinctly rural but, in Birmingham and the Black Country, Worcester and Hereford, Stafford and Leicester, intense urban services were operated mainly by double-decker buses and it is these buses that this volume examines.

For most of its operational life, BMMO constructed their own chassis fitted with proprietary bodies to their own often novel and frequently advanced designs. During the 1930s around 400 double-deck, rear-entrance REDDs and front-entrance FEDDs were built, plus others for both Trent and Potteries Motor Traction.
During the Second World War double-deck buses were allocated to the company by the Ministry of War Transport but, after the end of hostilities, bus production resumed until economic pressures caused the cessation of double-deck manufacture at Carlyle Road Works in 1966.

Shortages of buses did result in the purchase of twenty Guy Arab IIIs and 100 Leyland Titan PD2/12s between 1849 and 1954 but, from the 1960s until the company was split up, the rear-entrance Daimler Fleetline was the chassis of choice.

This book examines each type of double-decker with a history of the model, a brief technical specification and captioned photographs taken during the type's period in service.

Midland Red Coaches

Throughout their existence from 1904 until 1981, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company were an idiosyncratic operator whose area of operations ranged from the Welsh Marches and Shropshire in the West to Northamptonshire and Rutland in the East and from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire in the South to Staffordshire and Derbyshire in the North.

Much of their area was distinctly rural but in Birmingham and the Black Country, Worcester and Hereford, Stafford and Leicester, intense urban services were operated mainly by double-decker buses and it is these buses that this volume examines. Looking at the coaches that formed a part of this iconic fleet, David Harvey utilises his collection of rare and unpublished images to explore the fascinating world of Midland Red coaches.

Midland Red in NBC Days

Midland Red was the largest bus operator outside London and was unusual in that it designed, built and operated most of its own vehicles. Unlike LT through its AEC/Park Royal connection and Bristol, Midland Red did not sell its vehicles to other operators. This left the company in a unique position and as a result, gained many followers.
Most books about Midland Red concentrate on the period from the company's formation until it was nationalised and ceased its own vehicle production. However, the company carried on as an NBC company and continued to run its own home built vehicles until they were life expired. In addition, the company acquired other operators, such as Harper Brothers of Heath Hayes, and experimented with different types of bus service. These include the provision of 'minibuses' and full size buses that had been cut down. In an effort to find 'reliable' replacement vehicles, the company also tested other makes of bus, such as Bristol. This would have been unheard of only a few years earlier. The other major change in the company in this period was the formation of the West Midlands PTE. This involved transferring the garages and vehicles in the WMPTE area to WMPTE. As a result, many Midland Red built vehicles could be seen sporting the cream and blue WMPTE livery until they were finally replaced.

This book fills a gap in the current literature in covering the company's history into NBC days, from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. It will be essential reading for all followers of Midland Red and also the growing number of enthusiasts interested in the WMPTE era.

The Other Midland Reds - BMMO Buses Sold to Other Operators 1924-1940

The Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company began to operate motor buses in the Birmingham and Black Country area in 1912, radiating their services out as far as Leicester. By the 1920s they were building their own buses and SOS was born, standing for 'Shire's Own Specification', named after Midland Red's Chief Engineer.
The advantage of this was that the company could design exactly what it wanted without having to compromise by adopting a vehicle from an outside manufacturer. These new single deckers, inspired by American designs, were responsible for the closure of many tramways.

An important by-product of this decision to manufacture their own buses was that the company could manufacture for other BET Group operators such as the Northern General group, Potteries Motor Traction and Trent Motor Traction. For these and others, the company built many SOS buses, the fleets being seen all over England and Wales.
David Harvey tells the story of the SOS buses, of which five have survived into preservation.